Short Breaks for Disabled Children - application guidance notes

Before you start:

Please make sure you select the correct financial year for your application from the picklist (this should be the financial year that the project will be delivered in).

Multiple Activities/Projects

If you wish to apply for more than one activity in this application, please use this form and add the Supplementary Questions forms as requested in these guidance notes.

If you are applying for a grant of £1,000 or over for multiple projects or services, you will be able to provide Supplementary Questions forms to show the Activity and Financial details for each activity. For example, a Saturday club and a summer holiday scheme running in the same area with the same target group of children could be multiple activities included in the same application.

However if you are applying for projects across different geographical areas, you will need to complete separate applications for each. Please phone the Short breaks team to discuss if needed.

Please take note of any additional guidance for applications for multiple projects, which is asterisked throughout this guidance.*

When to apply

For most of the year grants of up to £5,000 are available. For larger grants of over £5,000, a specific grant round takes place – please see the Short Breaks funding for details.

Organisation details (Questions 1-6)

Question 1 Department/Grant programme

Select the type of Short Breaks grant you are applying for.

Make sure you select the correct financial year for when you want to deliver the activity/project.

1. Short Breaks for Disabled Children (including Inspiring You) - £5,000 and under or

2. Short Breaks for Disabled Children - (more than £5,000). For this type of grant, please see the Short Breaks web pages for more details of Larger Grant rounds and closing dates. Please note there are separate guidance notes for Support for Individuals applications.

Question 2a Contact details

Provide contact details for the applying organisation. This needs to be the organisation and the person that is responsible for administering and accounting for any grant awarded.

Your activity/project/service (Questions 7-10)

Question 7 Title of project or service

Please give the title of the project or service, for example: "XYZ After School Computer Club" or "123 Holiday Playscheme".

*For multiple projects, please write a title which summarises your service e.g. “Funtime Local Group: 2016-17 Short breaks Activities”

Question 8a Summary of your project

Please give a brief description of your project, e.g. group sports lessons, after-school art/drama club, specialist holiday playscheme, fun day for the whole family. (Please DO NOT include children’s names or Gateway card numbers in this application form).

*If you are applying for multiple activities, please summarise these briefly as you will be able to give more detail in Question 8b.

Question 8b Details of your project

Explain the specific activities included in your project, and how the requested funding will be used. What activities will you be doing with the children and young people attending?

*If you are applying for multiple activities/projects in this application please list them here and number them clearly:

Summer holiday outdoors day camp: daily camp during summer holidays for children aged between 5-12 with high support needs and their siblings

Weekly youth club at outdoors centre for young people with physical disabilities.

*For multiple activities/projects, please then go to the Short Breaks website and click on the links for the Supplementary Questions form. Please complete the details requested for each project and add extra rows as required for each project. You will need to save this Supplementary Questions form and attach it to your completed grant application form when you submit. You may wish to save your main grant application form and return to the remaining questions once you have completed the Supplementary questions.

In Question 8b, please also include information about how the need for the project has been identified (for example from consultation with children; requests from families).

Question 8c Project outcomes

Use this box to give an overall summary of your service/project’s outcomes.

*Optional: If you are applying for multiple projects and have outcomes that are specific to each individual project; please list these outcomes against the number of the project as in question 8b.

Question 8d How you involve service users in the development of your service

Please tell us about how you will involve, and seek feedback from BOTH children / young people with disabilities; AND their parents/carers.

Question 9 Project dates and frequency

Give the planned start and finish dates, even if the project runs throughout the year, and the venue for the activity.

Frequency: please ensure that you state the duration of each session and the total number of sessions.

Expected number of individuals to benefit from Grant: If the activity is for both disabled and non-disabled children, please only specify the number of disabled children and young people that will benefit from the activity.

*If you are applying for multiple projects, you will have already given most of these details for specific projects within the Supplementary Questions form, but please give the overall dates for your programme of activities, and please include here all the total expected number of Gateway card holders who will be attending, for all the projects/activities included in this application.

Finance (Questions 11-15)

Question 12 Cost details

When detailing costs for your project, please use these headings and put each cost on a separate row on the form (adding rows as necessary):

Financial assistancecosts to support families experiencing hardship. We would like providers to identify in their Grant applications any estimated costs for supporting families who may have difficulty affording the usual charge/contribution (please see more detailed guidance below For example 6 families in hardship get a £5 discount each: 6 x £5 x 10 sessions = £300).

Other Costs (for example marketing, venue hire) Please note that all Short Breaks funded activities can be advertised at no cost on the Hampshire Gateway website and publication – only reasonable additional marketing /publicity costs can be considered.

*If you are applying for multiple projects, please go to the short breaks website and click on the Financial Supplementary Questions form. Complete a budget breakdown in more detail for each activity/project. Please add extra tables as required for each project. (You will need to save this Financial Supplementary questions form and attach it to your completed grant application form when you submit). You may wish to save your main grant application form using ‘Save for Later’ and return to the remaining questions once you have completed the Financial Supplementary questions.

*For multiple projects, in the main online application form, at Question 12 please provide a summary in this table that shows the total cost for each separate project. For example:

Description

Cost (£)

1. Summer holiday outdoors day camp

£26,000

2. Weekly youth club

£3,000

Hardship Costs and Parental Charge/Contribution:

Short BreaksActivities and services will usually have a cost which you would expect to pay whether a child is disabled or non-disabled - families are expected to pay these costs. The Short Breaks funding is available for the additional costs that may arise due to a child’s disability and/or additional needs.

It is important that providers set a reasonable parental contribution/charge; and you tell us what this contribution is in your grant application inQuestion 13 and 14; in the box at the bottom called Other Income.

You will need to demonstrate that in setting the contribution amount, you have considered what contribution other providers are charging for similar activities for other children in your local area. You may wish to discuss this with the Parent Voice team in your area.

The Short Breaks Programme aims to ensure all families can access the scheme/activity whatever their circumstances; so some parents may need to approach you about paying a lower parental contribution. As a provider you will need to consider having a policy or similar arrangements to support these families. You will also need to consider the demographic of the local area you will be offering the service in when deciding how to plan for hardship provision, as this will be more of an issue in some areas than in others. When considering the needs of your local area, you might find it useful to consult the Hampshire 2015 Deprivation Factsheets produced by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Families with a disabled child will often have additional financial pressures too for various reasons. Some of the families that will most likely be in need are:

Families with more than one disabled child

Families in receipt of Income Support, Job Seekers/Employment Support Allowance

Families who rely on public transport

Families with a disabled child and other siblings of school age

Single parent families

Families who are entitled to free prescriptions through Tax Credit scheme, or free school meals

This is not an exhaustive list, so please use your judgement about what is reasonable, and encourage all families to pay what they are able to afford even if this is a nominal amount. We need to make sure that no family is put off accessing Short Break activities and that the system is fair and equitable.

Question 13 Income

Please complete the questions about income. Please make sure you include detail of the expected parental contribution/charge for the activity; in the Other Income section as explained above.

*For multiple projects, please put in the income amounts from each project at the bottom of the form.

Question 14a Project finance summary

The total amounts for expenditure; income; shortfall will be calculated automatically from the other information you have provided. Please put in the final box the amount of money you are requesting from HCC for this application. For paper applications you will need to make these calculations yourself.

General information (Questions 16- 20)

Question 16 Quality mark

Please give details here about any schemes you are part of that are relevant:

if applicable to you, please confirm that your organisation/provision is registered with Ofsted and give details of outcomes of your most recent inspection

other schemes that may be relevant include Investors in People, CAT mark (Hampshire scheme), Positive About Disabled People.

Question 19 About your organisation

Please leave the first part about Trustees blank if your organisation does not have trustees.

Question 20 Equalities

Please answer all three parts as best you can. We are not looking for comprehensive policies – just some bullet points, for example: thorough training; information sessions, staff guidebook etc. In addition to information about your policies and procedures please outline how the aims of your project will contribute towards a, b, and c.

Examples of things which may be relevant to include are:

We have an equality and diversity policy. We ensure our staff receive equalities and diversity training. We actively encourage and support all sectors of the community including those having protected characteristics to take part in this project.

We have an open and transparent recruitment and promotion policy.

The organisation’s culture fully embraces diversity.

Our constitution/ this project focuses on fostering good community relations across all sectors of society by...

This project will advance equality of opportunity for everyone by…

Documentation to be submitted

You only need to send same document once over 12 month period. If you have sent us your documents in the last 12 months please tell us the grant reference number to which they were attached if possible.

We would appreciate electronic document attachments. If, however, you only have a paper copy please write this in the documentation section and send a paper copy in to the grants team.

For all applications

Child protection/Safeguarding children policy

For applications over £5,000

Child protection/Safeguarding children policy

Annual Accounts

For applications over £25,000

Child protection policy/Safeguarding children

Annual Accounts

Equal Opportunities policy

Health and Safety policy

Insurance certificates

Business Plan

Please remember to attach the relevant documents listed above; not receiving these is the most common reason for delays in the payment process.

Monitoring Information

This information will help us to plan and fund areas of work where there are significant gaps and needs. If you need to collect this information from your staff or service users then it is important that you give them a choice as to whether they choose to give this personal information.

Before Submitting your Application

Please make sure you have told us:

What is the activity?

Where are you doing it?

How has the need been identified?

When will it take place?

Who will attend?

Identify the cost per child if possible

Please make sure you have included the following commonly missed information:

The dates that the activities will run – even if it is an ongoing project.

Staff rate of pay, where support is requested with this, broken down as follows, for example – 1x staff member @ £7 per hour, for 3 hours.

The amount the parent/carer pays to attend.

The level of public and employers liability insurance held by your organisation.

Your organisation’s safeguarding policy; if we have not received a copy within the last 12 months.

The application form will open in a new window. There is a two hour time limit to complete or save your form. Additionally you can print or save your application immediately prior to submitting it.

If you are unable to apply using the online application form, or if you wish to view the questions in advance, paper copies of the application form are available from the grant officer on request or download the forms: